Art of paper manufacture.



No. 875,069. PATENTED DEC. 31, 1907. I

W. R. GREEN. ART OF PAPER MANUFACTURE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 13, 1906.

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his di-arweg' No. 875,069. PATENTED DEC. 31, 190'7. W. R. GREEN. ART OF PAPER MANUFACTURE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 13, 1906.

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WILLARD R. GREEN, OF MUSCATINE, IOWA.

ART OF PAPER MANUFACTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 31, 1907;

Application filed January 13. 1906. Serial No. 295.909.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLARD R. GREEN, a citizen of the United States, residing in Muscatine, in the county of Muscatine and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Paper Manufacture, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the art of paper maunfacture and more particularly to the making of paper fiber strands especially adapted to use in making absorbents of that class in which the mass of fiber composing the same is so constituted and organized as to provide active absorptive qualities combined with efficient distributive qualities.

It will be remembered that in using some kinds of absorptive materials, such for instance, as fine vegetable fibers massed together, such as cotton or linen fiber, for instance, there is a marked tendency in many cases, especially where the fluids to be absorbed are of a slightly pasty or albuminous character or of a coagulative nature for the thicker components of the fluidto form a coating over the exterior mass of the fiber and so prevent the efficient operation of the fiber, as an absorbent for the more fluid portions of the substances to be absorbed.

One of the objects of my present improvement is to provide a method for commercially manufacturing material to minimize these objections. Relatively fine fibers such as wood fibers so called will be formed together in some suitable manner into a sheet, and this be converted into relatively large fiber like bodies or fiber-strands, and by mingling these together either by themselves or mixed with another and preferably finer fiber com.- ponent, thereby obtaining a highly active absorbent quality, while maintaining the mass of the whole sufficiently open in its texture and composition to provide for the necessary free distribution between such larger strands of which the same is composed.

Reference may be made to my copending application, Serial No. 295,908, filed January 13, 1906, wherein one feature of the improvement relates to the reinforcement of the fiber-strands in such a manner that each will be self sustaining and resist compression and matting when the mass is subjected to pressure and to the action of fluid. present improvement relates to the production, from sheets made of some fibrous absorptive which had been treated upon one And this side with some adhesive substance in the nature of a glue or cement-like material nonsoluble in water, of elongated curved bodies, which from the fact that they are made from fibers, and from the fact that they somewhat resemble strands, will in the present description be referred to as fiber-strands, although viewed from certain aspects they might not really be designated as strands but for the purpose of the present description it appears that such use is sufficiently accurate. Not only is the prepared stock sheared into bodies of curved formation, but to these is given a curly or spiral formation.

Drawings illustrating means by which my present improvement may be carried out accompany this specification, and are similar to the drawings in my copending application filed January 13, 1906, Serial No. 295,907, for machine for making paper fiberstrands, and wherein Figure 1 illustrates a front view of a form of shearing and curling mechanism. Fig. 2 is an end view thereof. Fig. 3 is a plan view. Fig. 4 is a perspective detail of one of the cutters detached, showing in it the act of severing two strips from a sheet of stock. Fig. 5 is a diagram of a strip of the stock as it is cut by the zigzag feed; and Fig. 6 is a detail of one of the shavings from the strip which are herein referred to as fiber-strands.

In the mechanism herein illustrated there is shown a bed 10 having a pair of upstanding brackets 11 in which is journaled the main driving shaft 12, driven from some suitable source of power, not shown, which may be applied to it at the pulley 13; such shaft is shown ascarrying a pair of crank wrists 14 by which a cutter head 15 is controlled through the medium of links 16, the cutter head being guided in guideways between plates 17 and may have upstanding portions 18 for giving it a greater security and stability as it moves up and down in the guideway. The sheet of material to be cut will be fed over the feed plate 19, the front edge of which will be provided with. a removable plate 20 constituting the lower knife of the shear. Such knife, as will be seen from the plan view, has a sinuous or ogee formation. The knife may be made up in some con venient manner, as for instance, a number of knife blades 21, four being illustrated in the present instance for the purpose of convenience. Each of which knives is shown as having reverse curves, and as having edges 22, 23 which may be disposed at an angle from the horizontal, so that as the knife descends the lowermost portion, that portion which is in the general region designated by the reference character 24, will inaugurate the cutting and the relative position of the knives, and the direction of the feed may be such that the out will be completed before the joint or junction 25 between the knives reaches the lower knife. The stc ck 30 will be fed forward between the upper and lower feed roll 31., 32 respectively, which rolls are journaled in the stanchicns 33 of a slide 34 shiftable crrsswise of the,

machine, that is, in a direction parallel to the general line of cutting of the knife. Such slide has articulated to it a lever 35 pivoted at 36 to one of the standards, 11, and carrying a roll 37 running uprn a can face 38 carried by a gear wheel 39 which is in mesh with a gear wheel 40 upcn the driving shaft; the gears in the-present instance are at the ratio of one to two. The feed rolls carry intermeshing gear wheels 41 and 42 respectively, and one of the rclls, as for instance the upper roll carries a ratchet wheel 43, the pawl 44 for such ratchet wheel being carried by an arm 45 to which is pivoted a link 48 con nected by a ball j (int to a slide 47 adjustable endwise upon the crank 48 fast to the driving shaft. r

' By the mechanism above described at each descent of the cutter head 15 the pawl will be drawn freely down over the ratchet wheel, and upon each ascent of the knife the pawl will engage the ratchet wheel and feed the stock forward between the pair of oppositely rotated rolls the predetermined distance, which has been secured by the adjustment of the slide 47 on the crank.

By reference to Fig. 5 it will be seen that the knives 21 will after cutting the edge of the stock leave the same with a sinuous edge, and by repeated cuttings where the stock is fed forward and slightly sidewise between the respective cuttings and shavings will present an appearance wherein the central portion as 50, is wider than the ends, the ends narrowing down as at 51, and in the present instance being attenuated to points. Such diagram shows the manner in which the respective feeds and descents of the cut ting knives have produced a series of shavings or fiber-strands. For the purpose of shifting the paper stock from side to side the shifting carriage 3'4 actuated from the cam 38 is provided, the feed rolls being given sufficient bite upon the paper stock to shift ittoward one side and then the other either during the feed or immediately preceding or following the same as occasion may demand.

A form of material which is peculiarly adapted for the carrying out of the present method is made up from such wood fiber as is employed in making paper. This may be commingled with a certain amount of fibers which may be relatively fine, and in practice from one to two percent. in weight of fine I cotton fibers may be intimately intermingled with the wood fibers to both hold and bind them together in the sheet form which will be made in somesuitable manner known severed. The sheet may be treated upon one side, as for instance by the application of some reinforcing material in the form of a layer spread or suitably applied to one side of said sheet of material, which after being sufliciently seasoned or dried as the case may be may then be fed to the machine and out up. For certain uses it is desirable that the cut edges of fiber stock shall be clear and clean, that is that they shall not be incumbored with fuzz or lint or projecting uncut or torn fibers, which would have a tendency to clog up the surfaces and prevent the ready absorption of fluids by the absorptive mass which each shaving or fiber-strand represents. In certain forms of arrangement of knives the upper knife comes down over the lower knife and shears off the stock and the same will curl upon itself; and it is believed that in the present form of device the surface of the sheet which is uppermost will be curled upon the outside, so that the surface which is presented upon the outside of the fiber-strand may be controlled by properly placing the sheet in the device.

In carrying out my present improvement the prepared sheet material will be formed into bodies which I have called fiber-strands, each of which in a preferred form will have a curved formation wider in the center than at the ends, which ends are illustrated as attenuated to points. The sheet of material will be fed over the bed plate of the device herein illustrated if such a form of apparatus is used in carrying out my improvement, and at each forward feed the sheet will also be given a sidewise movement so that the line upon which the sheet material was cut will be moved out of parallelism with the shear edge of the lower cutting member; and in some instances the shiftin of the sheet laterally coincident with the forward movement will bring certain portions of the out line in ooincidence with certain portions of the sinuous line of the shear edge upon the bed plate,

and other portions will project there beyond and by shearing such protruding or projecting portions by commencing at one end and cutting toward the other the body which is severed off will be curled up into a spiral formation.

The absorbent material herein shown and described is for hygienic and surgical purposes, in the form of bandages or otherwise, and the term surgical in the claims is intended to cover such uses.

Having described my invention I claim:

1. The art of manufacturing paper fiber strands for surgical purposes which consists in feeding a sheet into position to be cut and simultaneously with such feeding moving the sheet edgewise, and then cutting the sheet of fibrous material into independent and separated fiber strands of sinuous form in the direction of the plane of the sheet.

2. The art of manufacturing paper fiber strands for surgical purposes, which consists in preparing a sheet of fibrous material, then feeding said sheet into position to be cut and simultaneously With such feeding moving it edgewise, then cutting the sheet into independent and separated fiber strands each tapering toward its ends and of sinuous form in the direction of the plane of the sheet, and simultaneously curling said strands.

3. The art of manufacturing paper fiber strands for surgical purposes, which consists in applying to one surface of a sheet of fibrous paper a reinforcing coating, then feeding said sheet into position to be cut and simultaneously with such feeding moving it edgewise, and then cutting the sheet into independent and separated fiber strands each of sinuous form in the direction of the plane of the sheet.

f. The art of manufacturing paper fiber strands for surgical purposes, which consists in applying to one surface of a sheet of fibrous paper a coating of reinforcing adhesive material, then feeding said sheet into position to be cut and simultaneously with such feeding moving it edgewise, then cutting the sheet into independent and separated fiber strands each of sinuous form in the direction of the plane of the sheet, and simultaneously with the cutting thereof curling said strands.

5. The art of manufacturing paper fiber strands for surgical purposes, which consists in applying to one surface of a sheet of fibrous paper a reinforcing coating of adhesive material non-soluble in Water, then feeding said sheet into position to be cut and simultaneously with such feeding moving it edgewise, and then cutting the sheet into independent and separated fiber strands each tapering toward its ends and of sinuous form in the direction of the plane of the sheet and simultaneously curling said strands.

6. The art of manufacturing paper fiber strands for surgical purposes, which consists in first preparing a sheet of fibrous material composed of wood and vegetable fiber, then applying to the surfaces thereof a coating of adhesive material non-soluble in Water, then feeding the sheet into position to be cut, and simultaneously with such feeding moving it edgewise, then cutting the sheet into independent and separated fiber strands each tapering toward its ends and of sinuous form in the direction of the plane of the sheet, and simultaneously curling said strands.

Signed at WVashington, D. C., this 13th day of January, 1906.

WILLARD R. GREEN.

Witnesses:

A. M. PARKINS, E. J. W. OLARKsoN. 

